PS Plus Extra makes PS5 game prices look like even more of a rip-off – Reader’s Feature

metro.co.uk:

A reader is impressed by the revamped PS Plus but thinks its biggest problem is that it makes PS5 games seem even worse value for money.

Sony’s new PlayStation Plus subscription service reached the UK this Thursday. There’s been a few criticisms regarding issues with the premium tier, but I increasingly see the middle Extra tier as offering very good value. At £10.99 it’s the same as my Netflix subscription and gives me access to a great selection of PlayStation 4 games.

I’ll get access to some high-profile PlayStation 5 titles such as Returnal, Guardians Of The Galaxy, and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Given that I’m already paying £6.99 to access online gaming with the Essential tier, this only cost me £4 more than I’m already paying anyway.

Some people have compared it unfavourably to the Xbox Game Pass. It’s true that PS Plus doesn’t match Xbox’s offer of free AAA games on their release, but Microsoft are currently selling the Game Pass as a loss leader, i.e. selling it at a loss in order to attract customers to make a long term profit on. They won’t be able to keep this up indefinitely. They’ll need to either raise prices or compensate for the losses through other means, such as increased use of microtransactions.

Sony’s approach of charging a standard price for new games, allowing developers to make back their development costs, but then eventually making the game available to more people through subscription, feels like the right balance. I’d say it’s certainly as good as we could expect from a sustainable business model.

That all being said, while I feel this new subscription service offers good value, I can’t say the same for Sony’s current pricing for new titles. On the PlayStation 4, a new game used to cost me £55.